In the days following the Academy Awards' chaotic Best Picture mishap last Sunday, Moonlight director Barry Jenkins revealed to The Hollywood Reporter the sentimental, original Oscar speech he planned to give.
"Best picture is a producer's award" he told the trade mag. "I didn't plan to say much. Given the possibility of going up for adapted screenplay, I assumed there was a chance I wouldn't speak at all, that I would have already said my piece."
In addition to these logistical concerns among the creators, Jenkins and the rest of his team couldn't have anticipated the massive Oscar flub that would end up flip-flopping La La Land with Moonlight, ultimately placing them on top of the industry pinnacle for award season.
The Best Picture speech Jenkins wanted to give on Oscar night, in full:
"Tarell [Alvin McCraney] and I are Chiron. We are that boy. And when you watch Moonlight, you don't assume a boy who grew up how and where we did would grow up and make a piece of art that wins an Academy Award. I've said that a lot, and what I've had to admit is that I placed those limitations on myself, I denied myself that dream. Not you, not anyone else — me. And so, to anyone watching this who sees themselves in us, let this be a symbol, a reflection that leads you to love yourself. Because doing so may be the difference between dreaming at all and, somehow through the Academy's grace, realizing dreams you never allowed yourself to have. Much love."
Obviously sentiments came out differently in the now infamous final minutes of the national televised ceremony. Jenkins told THR, "I don't know how I managed any words at all. It is what it is".
